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I find it amazing that it was written 18 months ago. It just as easily could have been posted yesterday for its relevance.

CCW on
August 20th, 2008 12:21 am

Oh my gawd. I’d forgotten how great that was. Yeah, the most amazing part about it now is how little has changed. So maybe the specifics are a little dated… but that just accentuates how the basic points have not changed at all. Change the names and voila, it’s 2008, towards the end of one of the most miserable seasons in M’s history. And why is it miserable? See DMZ’s article from February 2007 to find out…

Waiting for 09 on
August 20th, 2008 12:42 am

Wow, I agree, it is like you just wrote this yesterday. Just more reminders that the top dawgs need to go first. Oh and go Nats.

joser on
August 20th, 2008 1:53 am

For some reason re-reading that made me think of this cartoon with DMZ in the role of Dilbert trying to enlighten the PHBs in the FO.

So I guess the whole future of the franchise (or at least the next few years, which could easily take me into the “I don’t follow the M’s anymore” mode like I was in through a good chunk of the 80s and 90s) really turns on who they hire as GM, and what that says about whether any thinking has changed in the FO. And I’m pretty resigned to the idea that Armstrong will find some “emeritus” role and Pat Gillick will be brought in to run things, and he and Lincoln will hire somebody who doesn’t shake things up. And I’ll go back to ignoring baseball for another decade.

vj on
August 20th, 2008 1:53 am

“how sad is that?”

I think this is due to (a) the post’s quality and (b) the fact that the 2007 season went well, thereby preventing changes in the organization’s personell and philosophy. Let’s just hope they do not hire a retread as Bavasi’s replacement.

From a wins standpoint. It’s hard to argue that the 2007 season didn’t encourage the FO and reinforce their belief that they were making the right moves.

Badbadger on
August 20th, 2008 6:36 am

I don’t know, I guess I see a thin ray of hope in that they’re going to be hiring a new manager and GM. Maybe one or even both of them will be smart. I mean, I know that the owners will probably be looking for someone who thinks the way they do, but as noted their ability to evaluate people is bad, maybe a smart person will slip through the cracks.

smb on
August 20th, 2008 7:42 am

This team makes me feel like the Austrian woman who was stuck in the cellar for decades. It’s a tough thing to be able to truthfully say there is NO hope right now. Sisyphus indeed.

Chuck Armstrong holds a major league record for longest tenure by a major executive for a team that has never won a pennant. Twenty-six years and counting….

And yes, the man is still very much involved in personnel decisions with the club.

Just think, while the Angels and A’s value the OPS of a prospect, Chuckie baby is more concerned with the prospect’s political affiliation. As long as this idiot is allowed to roam Safeco Field, the franchise is doomed to failure.

And guess what? There is no end in sight. The 26-year nightmare that is Chuck Armstrong is destined to just keep going and going and going.

Only in Seattle would a team this awful not have a shake-up at the top of the front office.

I hate the Seattle Mariners. I used to live and die with this team, and no, I didn’t quit on them, they quit on me! By refusing to admit that their whole baseball operation is fatally flawed, they are telling me that they don’t care if they ever get it fixed.

skeets35 on
August 20th, 2008 8:52 am

It was completely wrong…

The Rays are the “surprise” team of 2008, not 2009!

I have been an M’s fan since I went to their first game as a 15 year old in 1977, so I will continue to cheer for them, no matter the twisted thinking process of the FO.

Still, the lack of moves “might” suggest that a complete FO overhaul is on the horizon and ownership is not letting this group do much….or maybe that is just too much to hope!

bakomariner on
August 20th, 2008 8:56 am

What if there is a new ownership?

skeets35 on
August 20th, 2008 9:05 am

I just cannot do what so many people do these days and when things go bad (even for a long time) and leave my team for someones “nation” (Red Sox, A’s, Angels, Rays, Yankees, fill in the blank). That is not a fan, that is a band Wagoneer.

Yes, our FO sucks
Yes, the ownership is creating problems
Yes, This team may have only four or five real ML level guys
Yes, things will likely get worse before they get better

Still, I am a part of Mariners nation, I will not be leaving their fan base because they suck right now, and I am sick of people who “used to be M’s fans.” Criticize, complain, yell, whine, but you are an M’s fan, or you are not….

I will now step down off my soap box (which likely has a higher OPS than most of this years team!)

skeets35, I can’t leave either, but I don’t judge those who do. They have the sense to place their admiration and loyalties with organizations that earn it. You and I are cheering for a name. That’s a compulsion. We’re stuck with it, but I don’t think it’s morally superior to those who want to cheer for someone who has a chance to be good.

optigan on
August 20th, 2008 9:23 am

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

smb on
August 20th, 2008 9:47 am

“If this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him? …Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.”

-Albert Camus

I’ll continue to provide much scorn.

cody on
August 20th, 2008 10:08 am

Wow- After reading “Imagine Sisyhphus a Mariner” for the first time (I only started reading this blog about 10 months ago), I swear that if there weren’t a few references about how bad everyone thought ’07 was gonna go, DMZ could’ve posted it today and I would have no clue it was first posted over a year ago.

It’s sad, really.

I wonder if the Mariners are starting to become the butt end of jokes in FOs around major league baseball yet?

You know, something like, “Rondell White, 4yrs; 30M! We pulled a Mariner with that one!”

rcc on
August 20th, 2008 11:22 am

The post from February of 2007 is as accurate today as it was then. It has the feel of a political rant about GWB, but for me that only adds to the praise I am adding. Can the M’s become lovable losers, or is their fate to be just losers?